Dear Marie, morebiggerism

I’ve only been having one little repetitive thought lately. What if people aren’t taking me seriously? What if the conservative folks I work with in my State Agency, paper shuffling, office job don’t take me seriously because I think hiking boots fall into the category of “business casual” and I just won’t take my nose rings out?

Do my stylistic choices categorize me even more than my ideologies, my world travels, my income?

“If you want people to take you seriously, you are going to have to grow up.” I don’t know where this voice in my head originated, certainly not from my old hippie parents. Maybe I heard it from a dad on TV and it stuck. Somewhere in my brain lodged between the notion that a woman’s beauty is her most important asset and that Fruit Loops can be considered part of a balanced breakfast, is that ol’ notion of “you gotta look the part.”

Well, I don’t want to look the part. I want the part to look like me. I want ME to be taken seriously, not some facsimile of me in a pant suit.

Like you, whitey, or me as the heathen in pants at Sunday school, I’m just going to own it. You know that old George Burns adage? Or maybe it was Woody Allen, who said “I wouldn’t want to go to any party that would invite the likes of me.” No, it was Groucho Marx. And he said, “I wouldn’t want to be friends with anyone who would want to be friends with me.” That’s dumb. I want to live in environments and work with people who take me seriously because I make the lifestyle choices I do, not despite that.

The director of the Environmental Ministry at the First Unitarian Church in Salt Lake gave a homily last Sunday called Conspicuous Conservation. GENIUS! Instead of using consumption as a sign of wealth, popularity and general superiority, let’s start using the human habit of peacockery to promote a lifestyle and value system centered on environmental conservation and sustainability.

Besides the hipsters on fixies, I feel like there’s a common opinion in Salt Lake that the only reason you wouldn’t drive is because you are too poor or irresponsible to have a car. SUV still equals status here. While cycling, gardening/composting, reducing/reusing are gaining popularity amongst the liberal folks in the Marmalade District and Sugarhouse, the rest of town (i.e. the suburbs) still suffers from the morebigger-ism associated with the immature aspect of the American Daydream.

Is there a Danish Dream? Or a German Dream?